


The Five Times Mordecai Asked Moxxi To Run Away With Him

by snufflyphoenix



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I love these two and I have a lot of feelings about them, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Let me know if I should write more, This is an emotions guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-03 23:44:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10261748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snufflyphoenix/pseuds/snufflyphoenix
Summary: And the one time she ran away without him.





	

1) The first time he asks her they’ve only been together for a couple of weeks. Moxxi’s bar is closed for the night and they’re upstairs, half dozing on each other. A vague attempt had been made to remove clothes but they’re both so exhausted after their days, they just collapse onto the over-stuffed couch and stay there - Mordecai slouched back, with Moxxi fitting against him and resting her head against his shoulder. His head against hers as his fingers idly trail up and down her sleeve and the moment is so quiet and peaceful and so totally theirs he forgets himself and murmurs quietly; “We could run away.”

Moxxi chuckles, her eyes still closed. “I don’t think we’re running anywhere, darling. Go to sleep.”

“We could.”

“Says the man with his goggles still tangled in his dreads because he couldn’t be bothered to untangle them.”

“Hmph.”

She opens her eyes to kiss his pout gently. “Go to sleep, sugar.”

 

2) The second time he’s at the bar. Moxxi has been manning the ship all evening, fielding gross remarks from numerous patrons with a shake of her tip jar, a sharp look and the occasional threat disguised carefully within flirtations, and yet despite all this there’s a softness in her eyes when she looks his way that he knows is reserved for him. He finishes his drink as she wipes down the bar and she sings to herself as she locks up, an old song from Earth he doesn’t recognise. 

“What is that?” He asks, getting up to wash his glass, scooting around her so he doesn’t get in the way. 

“Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars,” she sings, setting her cloth down to wrap her arms around his waist, swaying in time with her song. “Let me see what Spring is like on Jupiter and Mars...”

Mordecai turns in her arms, a smile on his face as he wraps his arms around her. “I don’t know about Jupiter or Mars but we could go to the moon, if you want.”

She laughed as she continued singing, resting a hand on his shoulder. “In other words, hold my hand...” 

“If you stopped moving, I might be able to,” he teased, “but seriously, we could go. Run away to Elpis or something.”

She shook her head. She smiled sweetly as she tugged him down to her level, standing on tiptoe to rest their foreheads together and sang the final line quietly. “In other words, baby, kiss me.” 

How could he say no to that?

 

3) Their first proper argument. All couples fight, he knows this. He’s lived alongside Roland and Lilith long enough to have figured that out but the first fight in a relationship always feels like a failure. He’d just come back from a long mission that had resulted in piss poor loot and a broken ankle that even once a health pack had been applied still stung like a motherfucker. She’d had an Echo from the tradesman who brought her the flour necessary to make her pizzas to say the harvest had been poor and he needed to import it from Eden-5, so it would take two weeks longer than expected to get to her and cost twice as much. Neither one was happy and tempers had flared over Mordecai putting his boots up on the table.

She’d said he never gave a shit about the amount of work she put into keeping her business going.

He’d said she never gave a shit about the fact every time he goes out on a mission he might die, and she never cared when he came back injured.

Neither statement was true, and he knew they both knew this, but in the heat of an argument words are chosen to wound. 

They had yelled, there had been doors slammed, they had called each other all sorts of names they now regretted and, shamefaced, Mordecai knocks on the doorway of the flat he had left furiously earlier. Moxxi looks up, the only evidence she’d been crying the fact she had removed her makeup. “You came back,” she says. 

“Did you think I wasn’t going to?” He asks, closing the door behind him as he steps inside. 

“People usually don’t.” 

Mordecai crosses the room and tentatively puts his arms around her, relaxing as she curls into him. “...I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” she says quietly, tucking herself into his side.

They’re quiet for a moment before he speaks again. “I was thinking more about our idea of us going to Elpis-”

“The hypothetical idea of us going to Elpis,” she reminds him. 

“You don’t want to?” He asks.

“One day, darling,” she replies, pressing a light kiss to his shoulder. “But I have everything I need right here.”

 

4) “I love you.”

Moxxi flushes and blinks up at him, gaping slightly. 

“I’m sorry,” he apologises instantly, ceasing kissing her neck to sit back, as red in the face as she is. “That was… timing.” He finishes weakly.

She shakes her head, propping herself up on her elbows. “You mean that?” 

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.” He says genuinely, still watching her hesitantly.

She sits up to kiss him, a warm smile on her lips. “You’re the sweetest man I’ve ever been with, you know that?”

He notices she doesn’t say it back but that’s okay. He kisses her back, his smile mirroring hers. “Quite a compliment.” He teases gently and only chuckles when she swats at his arm.

“You’re ruining it.” She tells him, kissing him again. “Say it again?”

“Quite a compliment.” He grins as she pushes him onto his back and climbs on top of him.

She pouts. “You know what I mean.”

“I love you.” 

She smiles widely and kisses him deeply. “Much better.” 

 

5) Their following arguments aren’t so easy to solve with an apology.

They always tread the same familiar ground; Mordecai was a drunk, Moxxi was a flirt. Mordecai was reckless, Moxxi was ruthless. Mordecai was too pedantic, Moxxi was too forgetful. Mordecai was away for too long, Moxxi needed to let him do his job. 

They became more frequent and, every time, Mordecai would think they had resolved the issue and moved on, Moxxi would needle at him again and they were back to square one. 

“Moxx, _please_.” He held her hands tight in his, desperately trying to hide the shake in his voice. “Just.. give it another chance. Give us another chance, please, we’ll make it work.”

“I assume your plan is running away.” She sighed, shaking her head as she pulled her hands away. “That won’t fix anything.”

“But we’d have each other and that’s what we want,” he hesitated slightly, “isn’t it?”

“We should be able to have each other and not have to leave everyone else behind.” Moxxi frowned at him. “My bar and my family are here, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable.”

“My family’s here too.” He said quietly, looking down. “I know you think I’m crazy,” he ignored her scoff, “but I love you and I really think.. I really think we have a chance.”

She sighed again, almost tenderly running her thumb over his cheekbone. “I know you do, darling. You don’t know how to quit while you’re ahead.”

“I think that’s where we differ.” He said, his voice gaining a slight edge as he looks up again. “You’d rather quit, in case you fail, but I prefer to see things through.” 

“Or maybe you just don’t know when you’ve already lost.” 

There’s a silence.

“Run away with me?”

“Mordecai..”

“Right. … One more chance?”

She sighed. “One more, darling. For old times’ sake.” 

 

+1) ‘Closed Until Further Notice’ the sign on the door of Moxxxi’s read. 

“Moxxi, get down here!” Mordecai yells up at her flat, ignoring the stares from other residents of Sanctuary, trying to disguise how much he’s shaking.

No answer.

“Aw, come on, Moxx! I’ve known you as many things but a coward was never one of them!”

Still nothing.

“Well, isn’t that just great? The silent treatment, just what I needed. What, did Handsome Jack fuck all the words out of you or something?!” He doesn’t care that the whole of Sanctuary can probably hear. Jack. Handsome _fucking_ Jack. Of all the people she had to leave him for, she couldn’t have picked a worse person if she’d tried. And breaking up with him via Echo? He needed closure. Or alcohol. Preferably both. 

He sits down heavily on the steps of the bar and pushes his goggles up to wipe his eyes, sniffing furiously. He’d thought they’d been doing okay. They’d had a month with only minor arguments; they _had_ been doing better. They’d talked things through instead of just yelling, they’d-

“She’s gone, boy.” 

Mordecai looks up to see Crazy Earl’s eyes staring at him through his peep-hole and he resettles his goggles over his eyes. “What do you mean ‘gone’?”

“Whatchu think I mean? I mean she left. Elpis, she bought the ‘Up and Over’ in Concordia.” Earl snorted. “Why dontchu know this? You’re the one screwing her. Or you were.” 

Mordecai’s face set and he stands without bothering to reply. He walks back to HQ, blinking rapidly to try and dispel the tears that formed but it was no use. She’d gone to have their dream without him and he was left on fucking Pandora with nothing to show for it other than a broken heart. 

He ignores Brick, Lilith and Roland’s concern as he trudges up the stairs to his bunk, pulling a bottle of rakk ale from under his bed and drinks deeply. Whoever said answers couldn’t be found at the bottom of a bottle had clearly never had their heart ripped out and trampled on by 3 inch heels and a killer smile. He’d sign up for Rakkaholics Anonymous in the morning but for now, he drinks deeply until he passes out and he no longer can hear her voice in his head.

 

And somewhere in Concordia, Moxxi lets Jack kiss her neck and she arches her back like she’s supposed to but her heart is still on Pandora and there it will remain.

**Author's Note:**

> So I had the idea for this fic about six months ago and I've only just written it and WHOO BOY I am the emotions right now.


End file.
